Focus

Benedict's Sunday on TV. With His Homilies Painted and Sung

Art and music will accompany the pope's words, which will act as a guide to the Sunday Mass. The new broadcast will air in Italy every Saturday on TV 2000. But it will be available all over the world on the web

by Sandro Magister

ROME, March 7, 2011 – Beginning next Saturday, the vigil of the first Sunday of Lent, Benedict XVI will be on TV every Saturday with the best of his preaching: that of the homilies for the Masses, that of the Angelus commentaries on the Gospel of the day.

But in addition to the pope's words, there will be more. The broadcast will be entitled "Sunday with Benedict XVI." And it will unfold in three closely related segments: art, words, music.

The words, the central segment, will be those of pope Joseph Ratzinger himself. From the archive of his almost six years of homilies and Angelus addresses – a now rich repository – will be taken and broadcast in the original audio and video recording, from Saturday to Saturday, the excerpts that will best convey the meaning and flavor of the texts of the following day's Mass.

The art will act as "overture" to the broadcast. Each time, the great art historian Timothy Verdon will display and illustrate three masterpieces of Christian painting connected to the themes and subjects of the next day's Mass, the same ones brought to light by the pope.

And finally the music, as the crowning of everything. The "Cantori Gregoriani" conducted by maestro Fulvio Rampi – among the best interpreters of Latin rite liturgical chant in the world – will sing the entrance and communion chant of the proper of each Sunday, in the purest Gregorian chant, with a commentary by their conductor that will unveil their musical and liturgical wonders, in some cases already anticipated by the pope himself.

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"Sunday with Benedict XVI" will last for half an hour. It will air in Italy every Saturday at 5:30 p.m., with a repeat at 10:35. And it will accompany the entire liturgical year, with no hiatus.

The channel that will air this new program is TV 2000, owned by the Italian episcopal conference, with Dino Boffo as program director and studio headquarters in Rome. It can be seen on satellite and cable in Italy, and via streaming all over the world, on its website:> TV 2000

But TV 2000 could soon be followed by other television channels in other countries and continents, some of which have already demonstrated strong interest in broadcasting this same program, in their respective languages.

In creating the new broadcast, TV 2000 took its inspiration from one of the main features of Benedict XVI's pontificate. The one that has its focal point in the Mass: "the act in which God comes among us and we touch him," as the pope said in the book-interview "Light of the World"; the act in which the Word of God "becomes flesh" in the person of God and "is eaten" in the transubstantiated bread.

The Mass is not "theater," it is not "spectacle," Pope Benedict continues. It "draws its life from an Other, and this must be made clear." But in welcoming this gift received from Christ, the Catholic Church acts not only with the sacrament, but also with architecture, the arts, music. In this way the liturgy opens the door to God and provides a glimpse of his mystery, even for those of lukewarm faith or far from it.

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In concrete terms, every Saturday Benedict XVI will illustrate the texts of the Sunday Mass with excerpts taken from his live preaching, from a homily, from an Angelus.

And when this is not sufficient, the pope's spoken words will be supplemented with readings from his book "Jesus of Nazareth" concerning the Gospel of the day.

This will be the case, for example, with the first Sunday of Lent. On the vigil, Benedict XVI will be heard in an Angelus dedicated to the temptation of Jesus in the desert, read in the Gospel of the following day. But the main part of his segment will be taken from his first volume on Jesus, from that evocative passage in which, commenting on the last temptation, that of power, the pope asks: "But what did Jesus truly bring, if he did not bring peace upon the earth, prosperity for all, a better world? What did he bring?" And he answers: "He brought God."

Other times, the pope's words will be accompanied by those of the Fathers of the Church, often the subject of his citations and commentary.

But in most cases, it will be Benedict XVI himself who is illustrating the biblical readings of the Sunday Mass, with his homilies alone.

These, more and more each year, are revealing themselves to be a characteristic trait of his pontificate, as brought to light by this article from www.chiesa on the occasion of the publication of the volume with Benedict XVI's homilies from the past liturgical year:

As for the artistic "overture" of the broadcast, it should be noted that Timothy Verdon – art historian, priest, born in the United States but residing in Florence, where he directs the diocesan office for catechesis through art – is one of the staunchest supporters of an idea precious to pope Ratzinger, according to which Christian art is a privileged means of introduction to the divine mysteries.

Verdon is so convinced of this that in recent years he has published three volumes dedicated to the three cycles of readings of the Roman missal, in which he has illustrated and commented on every Sunday and feast day Mass using masterpieces of Christian art chosen on the basis of that day's Gospel:

In the new broadcast of TV 2000, Verdon will translate this idea into the language of television, making it accessible to a vast audience. He will use the colors and lights of painting to anticipate that page of the Gospel which Benedict XVI will explain immediately after with his words.

For example, on the vigil of the first Sunday of Lent, Verdon will illustrate the Gospel of the temptation with a painting by Jacopo Tintoretto in the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice, with a panel by Duccio di Buoninsegna kept in the Frick Collection in New York, and with a mosaic from 5th-century Ravenna depicting Jesus multiplying the loaves.

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As for the musical part, the performances in Gregorian chant of parts of the proper of the Sundays of Lent will take place in a church in Cremona, that of Sant'Abbondio, which is also the church in which the great Claudio Monteverdi was baptized, having been born in Cremona.

But from Easter onward, the chants will be performed in other places as well, including some of the most beautiful churches of Rome.

And on some occasions, the "Cantori Gregoriani" will be replaced by a polyphonic choir also conducted by maestro Rampi, which will perform motets by Palestrina, Monteverdi, and other great composers, arrangements of the liturgical texts of each Sunday.

The "Cantori Gregoriani" have been active for many years. They have held concerts in various countries of the world. But they are the first to understand and theorize that Gregorian chant can be comprehended and savored only if it is brought back into its proper context, which is that of the liturgy.

There is no other model than this, in fact, to restore the veracity of Gregorian chant. And to return it to the preeminent place that Vatican Council II had confirmed for it, as the primary song of the Catholic liturgy.

And it is precisely this that the "Cantori Gregoriani" will do in the final part of the broadcast. Not only will they perform the specific chants of each Sunday Mass, but their conductor, commenting on them, will situate them precisely within the liturgical context of which they are an essential part.

For more information about this choir, there is a website in Italian and English: